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Schizophrenia Affects Your Body, Not Just Your Brain

Discussion in 'Other health news and research' started by Andy, May 12, 2018.

  1. Andy

    Andy Committee Member

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    Wow, it's almost like the brain is just another part of the body, potentially affected by other parts of the body.
    http://neurosciencenews.com/schizophrenia-body-brain-9036/
     
    Chezboo, fossil, inox and 13 others like this.
  2. Barry

    Barry Senior Member (Voting Rights)

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    Among the assorted hit-and-miss diagnoses my mother had over many years, schizophrenia was one of them. I think it very possible there could be an underlying physical abnormality that leads to brain malfunction, thereby manifesting as a mental illness. Whether such a physical problem would be confined only to the brain ... who knows? From my second hand experience of it, the very last people to ask would be psychiatrists.
     
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  3. Andy

    Andy Committee Member

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    The possibility that any psychological condition is caused by physical issues is not something that psychiatrists are going to be keen on, as it will start to reduce their potential victim pool.
     
  4. lansbergen

    lansbergen Senior Member (Voting Rights)

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    It is part of the body and ofcourse it is affected by other parts.

    Did ypu ever think the brain could live without the rest of the body?
     
    Barry, adambeyoncelowe and Daisymay like this.
  5. Andy

    Andy Committee Member

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    The sarcasm isn't apparent? If not, please take my post as being a sarcastic shot at the psychs.
     
  6. Daisymay

    Daisymay Senior Member (Voting Rights)

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    "victim pool" what an appropriate term!
     
  7. Barry

    Barry Senior Member (Voting Rights)

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    And yet even back in the '60s my parents apparently understood that my mother's problems potentially had some physical root cause. "Chemical imbalance" was a term I vaguely recall. I have very mixed feelings about psychiatry. On the one hand I know for sure there are some immensely dedicated and compassionate psychiatrists and psychologists, who do indeed help people a lot. And yet even before my ME-awareness, based on other experiences, I've also felt psychiatry a bit akin to voodoo and black magic, practiced by people having much more faith than knowledge. Very mixed feelings.
     
    Chezboo, sea, Woolie and 7 others like this.
  8. Woolie

    Woolie Senior Member

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    The sarcasm was noted and appreciated by me!

    I think this paper was really interesting @Andy, thanks for posting about it. You can find the full thing here: http://sci-hub.tw/10.1038/s41380-018-0058-9. Here is the interesting bit:
    So in other words, people diagnosed after their first episode of psychosis, who'd had no antipsychotics, had significantly elevated levels of four cytokines: IL-1β, sIL2R, IL-6, and TNFα.

    I've been wondering for a while if the brain is a sort of "canary" for some sorts of systemic disturbances, the first to show external signs of disease.

    But what's the bet all this will end up getting explained away as an effect of having the stress of psychosis, rather than an important potential causal factor?
     
    Indigophoton, Chezboo, sea and 5 others like this.
  9. Andy

    Andy Committee Member

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    So immune system activation and, unsurprisingly enough, a quick Google reveals most, if not all, of those cytokines are involved in inflammation. My prediction is that, given enough time, we will find most, if not all, "mental illnesses" are physical illnesses that just affect the brain in certain ways more than others - treat the physical and the mental will improve..
     
    Indigophoton, Chezboo, Woolie and 6 others like this.
  10. Squeezy

    Squeezy Senior Member (Voting Rights)

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    The new thing in depression is that it's caused by inflammation, not serotonin imbalance! I read a fascinating article in The Times a couple of weeks ago. Too brain dead to find it. Cambridge psychiatrist has written a book on it.
     
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  11. Invisible Woman

    Invisible Woman Senior Member (Voting Rights)

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  12. Squeezy

    Squeezy Senior Member (Voting Rights)

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    Invisible Woman likes this.
  13. Woolie

    Woolie Senior Member

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    Yea, Ed Bullmore. Amazing how many people are shoehorning it into a psychosocial account of depression, though. Its all that negative thinking that causes the immune dysfunction.
     
    Squeezy, Amw66, Wonko and 2 others like this.
  14. Amw66

    Amw66 Senior Member (Voting Rights)

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    Maybe explains how high dose B3 ( niacin) helped treat schizophrenia prior to antipsychotics - it has anti inflammatory properties.
     
    Invisible Woman likes this.

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